Latest Plant Stories

Land plants' ability to sprout upward through the air, unsupported except by their own woody tissues, has long been considered one of the characteristics separating them from aquatic plants, which rely on water to support them.Now lignin, one of the chemical underpinnings vital to the self-supporting nature of land plants "“ and thought unique to them "“ has been found in marine algae by a team of researchers including scientists at UBC and Stanford University.Lignin, a principal...

Optics Express research describes how tiny organism can make biofuelIn pursuing cleaner energy there is such a thing as being too green. Unicellular microalgae, for instance, can be considered too green. In a paper in a special energy issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley describe a method for using microalgae for making biofuel. The researchers explain a way to genetically modify the tiny organisms, so...

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- PlantSense Inc. (http://www.easybloom.com/), makers of the first Internet-connected gardening tool, today announced partnerships with leading gardening and seed companies including Ball Horticultural Company, W. Atlee Burpee and the National Gardening Association, and AccuWeather.com, The World's Weather Authority(R). PlantSense has tapped detailed plant and weather intelligence from these leading organizations to help people know what to plant where,...

The 149-year-old Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, one of the world's largest botanical collections, has received its 6 millionth herbarium specimen. A herbarium is essentially a "library" of plant specimens. The garden's herbarium includes about 5.5 million vascular plants -- flowering plants, ferns and conifers -- and 500,000 bryophytes, mosses, liverworts and hornworts. "The importance of these 'libraries' of plants cannot be overstated," said the garden's vice president of Science...

Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered that when the leaf of a plant is under attack by a pathogen, it can send out an S.O.S. to the roots for help, and the roots will respond by secreting an acid that brings beneficial bacteria to the rescue.The finding quashes the misperception that plants are "sitting ducks"--at the mercy of passing pathogens--and sheds new light on a sophisticated signaling system inside plants that rivals the nervous system in humans and animals.The...

LOGAN (AP) -- Utah State University will share a $900,000 government research grant for biofuel production. The Utah school will team with Montana State University to grow species of algae that thrive in geothermal vents and the Great Salt Lake in a test of their oil content. USU energy lab director Jeff Muhs says algae that can withstand saline environments are useful because they could possibly be used to produce fuels using plentiful ocean water, sparing more valuable fresh water. Algae...

Researchers reported on Thursday that plants stressed by drought or unseasonable temperatures squirt out an aspirin-like chemical that may be a sort of immune response that helps protect the plants, the scientists speculated.The finding raises the possibility that farmers, forest managers and others may eventually be able to start monitoring plants for early signs of a disease, an insect infestation or other types of stress, they said.Currently they often do not know if an ecosystem is...

By Luntz, Stephen CSIRO and the Grains Research and Development Corporation's joint Crop Biofactories Initiative has taken a step towards replacing petroleum-derived products with plant oils while avoiding the problems associated with biofuels. They have expressed significant quantities of vernolic acid, an unusual fatty acid (UFA), in the model plant Arabidopsis and hope to transfer their work to produce a range of other UFAs in safflower seeds, which are rich in oil. Dr Allan Green of...

By Larisa Brass, The Knoxville News Sentinel, Tenn. Jul. 29--LAWNS TURN GREEN -- NOT JUST IN COLOR: These days, keeping a green lawn can refer as equally to its state of environmental friendliness as to its color. Green lawn care spans all aspects of maintaining yards and gardens, from the plants one chooses to maintenance practices to products and equipment -- believe it or not, those old-fashioned, muscle-powered push mowers are seeing a revival. Sam Rogers, associate professor...

Plants undergo stress because of lack of water, due to the heat or the cold or to excess of light. A research team from the University of the Basque Country have analyzed the substances that are triggered in plants to protect themselves, with the goal of choosing the species that is best suited to the environment during reforestation under adverse environmental conditions.Droughts, extreme temperatures, contamination, and so on "“ all are harmful to plants. On occasions, the damage is...